Sargent was a longtime member of the BYU faculty who recently retired.

"He told me he wanted to write a piece for me and the orchestra," Katseanes said. The 15-minute-long work will receive its premiere at the Philharmonic's first major concert of the season on Nov. 17 in de Jong Concert Hall on the BYU campus.

"It's very listenable and it's not in a vocabulary that people won't understand. It's a very ambitious piece and what strikes me most about it is its energy."

Finding a companion piece to the Sargent wasn't too difficult, Katseanes said. "We're doing Gustav Holst's 'Planets.' It's always fun to do and it's perfectly suited for this concert, and also for us."

"The Planets" requires an enormous ensemble, and Katseanes has that in the Philharmonic. "This is one time where size matters," he said. "You need a huge orchestra, and we're big. We're at about 110 players right now."

Joining them will be members of BYU's Women's Chorus for "Neptune." "The audience will get a thrill out of that," Katseanes promised.

Rounding out the program will be Claude Debussy's "Iberia," a work that isn't done all that often in concert. "It's a great piece and we're excited to play it." It's not an easy piece to do well, Katseanes said, but it's well worth the effort. "It's rhythmically demanding, like Bach, but it's such a great treat for everyone."